Google Advertising?

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Pay-per-click exposes small shops to big audiences.

Detailers hate advertising because they operate on such thin budgets, but you’ll notice one thing: the shops that stay in business–year after year–advertise the most. The “old way” favored the big shops: $4500 phone book ad kept you front and center, year after year. Who ever looked at the “basic” entries? But Google Adwords now sells the king’s seat–”front and center” on the first page of their search engine, for $1-$2 a click.



How Adwords works for a small Colorado detailer.

Allan Schlepp runs Pro Mobile Detail in Front Range, CO part-time. He bought my course in early 2010 and quickly set up a Google Adwords campaign. He pays around $1 a click to show his ad when people search for these terms:



detailing, auto detailing, car detailing, mobile detailing, mobile auto detailing, mobile car detailing



In these cities:

Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, LIttleton, Englewood, Lakewood, Denver, Wheatridge, Arvada Westminster



On average, Allan says he gets a job for every 40 clicks.



The math: spend $40 to make $110.

40 clicks/job x $1/click = $40 advertising cost per job.



Average profit per job before advertising: $150 (it’s rural Colorado).



Therefore, his net profit is $150 – $40 = $110 per job. Not all jobs are full details: some interior-only, some exterior-only jobs that take 4 hours including driving. And importantly, let’s recognize the value of a new customer. About 25% will use him again ($150 profit the next time). About 15% will refer him ($150 profit there).



So, for Allan, a mobile detailer in a rural area, Google AdWords makes his business possible.





Anybody here use Adwords? Your experiences?
 
I wouldn't mind paying for ads for a flat fee, or even just optimizing SEO, but I don't want to pay per click. How many people are just searching and accidentially click?



BTW gonna get back to you this week ;)
 
I don't if it was a coincidence or not, but as soon as I started paying for Adwords my organic listing starting ranking higher. Adwords is the only paid advertising I do now.
 
Highrev1 said:
How many people are just searching and accidentially click?
Click to expand...



Not that many. It doesn't much matter anyway, exposure is exposure.



Last year, on a modest budget in a small defined area my ad was shown 99,448 times of which 1,079 clicked costing me $1,365.



There is no cheaper way to get 1,000 people, interested in getting their vehicle detailed, to my site. I am also 1000% positive I more then made my money back.
 
I have tried Google Adwords i think it brought in business, not really sure. I used a $100 free trail. I think i will use it again to see what will happen.
 
One thing that helps:



Don't deliver clicks to your home page. Instead, create a special page called adwords.html with a unique message like: "Welcome Adwords user. Be sure to mention "Adwords" to us for 10% off all services. Click here to proceed to our website."



Then you can track, for certain, if the campaign is a money maker or not.
 
I did an ad campaign about 8 months ago and I don't think I got any jobs from it. But I think I may try it again this spring and try Robert's tracking method above.
 
Adwords can be very successful if you spend sometime and understand what is happening. The biggest mistakes first-time Adwords users make is... letting Google's default settings dictate your Account settings and not really understanding how it works.



Did you know that you can just show ads to specific zip codes? (or even a radius around a zip code?)



You can also show ads during specific times during the day (day-parting).



You can set a campaign budget of $5 dollar's a day.



You can help your SEO effort by understanding what people are actually typing in to cause your ad to show. (and then using the more popular search terms and adding those into your website's copy)



Make sure you understand how keyword match types work. Broad, Phrase and Exact Match.



Adwords has a great help section: AdWords Help



The great thing about using a platform like Adwords is that everything is trackable. You can understand what is working and what isn't working, just by seeing what keywords and ads potential prospects are responding to.
 
I'm surprised to hear a lot of people don't have luck with Adwords. Almost 75% of my new customers (that aren't from word of mouth) come from Adwords alone. The rest find me organically via search engine maps etc. I have the benefit of living out by the beach away from city center where there aren't many detailers or even car washes..so when someone searches for detailing within close radius to their house, I almost always show up as a top result. With adwords, I can zone in on certain areas which I don't normally show up organically.
 
This is true. In less competitive areas, detailers have very good success with Adwords.



In major cities it becomes tough because a term like "Chicago auto detailing" might cost $3.50 a click!



What you really need to do is target the suburbs. So if you lived in Portland, OR, you'd be looking to target the niche areas (Lake Oswego, Wilsonville, Tigard, Beaverton, Bethany, etc.) where the cost-per-click is less.
 
MichaelM said:
If you are showing up on the first page organically does it make sense to use adwords?
Click to expand...



If you're near the top of the page, no. But there is an exception: if you have a four-star review rating--and it appears in your actual ad at the top (no the side) of the page--this, statistically makes it very likely that you'll get a click.
 
MichaelM said:
If you are showing up on the first page organically does it make sense to use adwords?
Click to expand...



I always recommend having an ad show even if you have good organic rankings and here is why:



You now own more of the 1st page's real estate. Besides having just a single listing you now have two opportunities to capture a potential prospect. I have always felt that you get a 1+1=3 benefit. There is this additional "trust" bump (in the mind of the searcher) where the paid ad supports the organic ad and the organic supports the paid.



The other reason to have a paid ad is, you can control where the ad takes that person and the page you want them to be sent to. (Organically, Google is going to pick which page it thinks is best in terms of relevancy). If you can create a "landing page" a page specifically designed to:

Answer the questions on the prospects mind

Cut down on the person getting distracted and having to "click around"

Get the visitor to take a specific action (email, phone call, schedule an appointment etc)

You will greatly increase the success of your paid search campaign.



The great thing about about Adwords is you can always turn an ad group off or a subset of keywords if they are not working.



You can also add your phone number or have Google supply you with a trackable number right in your ad copy. It is called call extensions. It makes it really simple from a mobile phone device as all the searcher now has to do is just click the number and the phone number is dialed.
 
I have used 150$ in ad words here in rural Utah, I have never tracked a job back to the 150$ spent! I got another 100$ free use, thinking why not try again.......



Robert got any new ideas this time around?



Cheers,

GREG
 
Greg Nichols said:
I have used 150$ in ad words here in rural Utah, I have never tracked a job back to the 150$ spent! I got another 100$ free use, thinking why not try again.......



Robert got any new ideas this time around?



Cheers,

GREG
Click to expand...



People love a deal. They like to feel like they "worked" for something..."found something."



so instead of linking your ad to your homepage, link it to a special page that you create. Should say something like:



"Thanks for clicking on my Google ad. I've been a pro detailer for x years in "city x." Here's two reasons I believe I'm your best choice for your project: ........... Because I want to earn your long term business, I can offer you 20% off your first job. Just mention "Google." Have a look around at photos of my work. Read about my process. Hope to see you soon.



Greg Nichols

[insert photo of yourself]"
 
MichaelM said:
If you are showing up on the first page organically does it make sense to use adwords?
Click to expand...



These days it does make a difference. Over the last year, Google has updated its algorithm (the system it uses to rank web pages based on the relevance of the search query) to show more local results when a users query is local in nature. So, just because you rank on the first page for "car detailing miami" doesn't necessarily mean that you will rank on the 1st page if someone searches for "car detailing" (without the geographic modifier). Adwords helps with this because you can bid on that non-geographic keyword and get some visibility. Google places also helps, but primarily in your geographic area radius. Adwords gives you a broader reach, but of course it comes at a cost, whereas SEO and Google Places optimization is free if your doing it yourself.
 
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